


Time and Mushrooms

by Dendritic_Trees



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Food, Gen, good advice, very large mushrooms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-05
Updated: 2016-03-05
Packaged: 2018-05-24 19:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6164818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dendritic_Trees/pseuds/Dendritic_Trees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper gives good advice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time and Mushrooms

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wind_Ryder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wind_Ryder/gifts).



> A gift for Wind_Ryder. Thank you for your advice, and for being so nice about it. Its not really up to your standards writing-wise, but I hope you like it.

“Thank you for that,” Steve said, once Pepper returned from distracting a woman who had seemed not at all interested in the arts charity they were supposed to be supporting, but very interested in Steve’s arms. “I have no idea how you and Tony do this.”

“Its no trouble,” said Pepper, “I’m quite used to it, but would you like to go? You look very done.”

“Its fine,” said Steve, although he’d actually wanted to leave since about five minutes after he’d arrived, “we should probably stay until the end.”

“Don’t worry, this stopped being useful half an hour ago, we’re just ducking out on the schmoozing,” said Pepper, and guided him out of the ballroom with a hand on his back. “Believe me, I know.”

Pepper looped her arm through his and they walked down the street together in silence until she tugged him into a narrow little restaurant not so far from the Tower.

“You can tell no one about this place it’s my special secret and it gets crowded enough in here as it is. But I though you could use some cheering up.” Pepper explained, before she went up to the counter to order. 

“Not to pry,” Pepper said, over a plate of some sort of cornbread with peppers in it, “but why are you doing this? The charity work I mean, because, to be frank, I’ve seen you at a few of these things, and I’ve never seen you look happy.”

“I dunno,” Steve admitted, “you and Tony make it seem so easy, but I guess I haven’t got the knack for it. It seems like the right thing to do though, and it fills up the time. I don’t have much to do otherwise, besides you know, Avengers stuff.”

“Have you got nothing else you’d like to be doing? Nowhere you’d like to visit?” Pepper asked.

“I dunno,” Steve said again, “I just, I want to find Bucky, but I’m out of leads. And I’ve got to be doing something, you know.”

They were interrupted then, by a waitress with purple hair and very large plates filled with salad and potato wedges and burgers stacked with vegetables, pickles and sauce, which turned out to actually be very large mushrooms on hamburger buns. It actually looked like what Steve considered a reasonable amount of food too. Even though Pepper had ordered just as much for herself as for Steve.

“It’s the Extremis,” Pepper explained, when she caught him looking, “I am always hungry these days, its actually very annoying.”

“It really is,” Steve agreed, while he examined his mushroom. 

“Have you not had a portobello burger before?” Pepper asked him.

He shook his head.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think. Order something else if you’d like, I’ll have them bring a menu over.” Pepper offered.

“No its fine,” said Steve. He wasn’t actually lying, it smelled really good, but throwing away perfectly good food still made him nervous.

Pepper waited until he had a mouthful of burger/mushroom (it was actually really good) and couldn’t immediately respond to say, “you don’t owe anyone anything Steve. Have you considered spending the time finding out what you’d like to do, instead of making yourself miserable at charity functions full of bored millionaires?”

Steve swallowed, somewhat abruptly, “that’s what Sam says.”

“Well Sam is underappreciated and I don’t think we’re paying him enough,” Pepper said primly, “I think I’ll sort that out when we get back to the tower, the second part at least. And don’t worry too much about it. You’ve got lots of time to find something that makes you happy.”

“Well,” said Steve, “these giant mushrooms are pretty good.”


End file.
